MEMBERS & VISITORS
Cancer Is Killing Black Women
The main preventable causes of cancer are diet, smoking and infection. Of these, diet is likely to most disproportionately affect women over the coming years. It has been estimated that over half a million cancers worldwide can be directly linked to obesity and inactivity every year. This is tragic because these particular causes are preventable. It is so hard to lose a mother, sister, or spouse to cancer! Uterine Cancer Is on the Rise, Especially Among Black Women The cancer eventually will become the third most common type among women, experts say. The mortality rate is highest among Black Americans. Although being overweight can increase the risk of some cancers that affect both sexes, such as kidney cancer and bowel cancer, some cancers that only affect women are also strongly linked to obesity.
Rising levels of obesity have been followed by a rapid increase in the number of these cancers diagnosed. For example, the number of cases of womb cancer diagnosed every year in the UK has almost doubled since the early 1990s and it has been estimated that a third of all womb cancers can be linked to obesity. The way that being overweight drives these particular types of cancers is complicated but one of the main factors seems to be the production of the hormone oestrogen by fat cells in the body.
Most breast and womb cancers produce a protein called the oestrogen receptor that causes cancer cells to uncontrollably divide when oestrogen is present in high amounts. All adults have a certain amount of oestrogen in their bodies but for women who have been through the menopause in particular the amount of oestrogen is largely determined by how much fat they have in their bodies. Studies have consistently shown that breast cancer is both more common and less readily treatable in overweight women.
Prof. Oku Singer, Mechanical/Solar Engineer
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